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It was an unsatisfactory episode for all concerned. There were indications that the whole Government had connived in the operation until it was discovered by the police and leaked to the Leader of the Opposition.

In the wake of the attacks on the Catholic areas of Belfast in 1969, the Irish Government was under pressure to be ready to give aid to the Catholic population in Northern Ireland to defend themselves if they were attacked by Orange mobs and once again not protected by the police. But Haughey’s own denial in evidence that he had sanctioned the importation was contradicted by several witnesses as well as one of his co-accused. When, after his acquittal by the jury after a sensational trial, he called on those responsible for the prosecution to “take the honourable course”, he was faced down by Lynch and forced to eat humble pie on the back benches.

But Haughey was nothing if not resilient. He travelled the length and breadth of the country addressing party meetings, consolidating his position with the rank and file and uttering the odd bit of Anglophobia. There were soon to be found in every neck of the woods self-styled patriots, wheeler-dealers and sharp operators proud to proclaim themselves “Charlie men”.

In 1975 Lynch was constrained to recall Haughey to the front bench and he was appointed Minister for Health and Social Welfare when Fianna Fail won a landslide victory at the 1977 general election. As a minister, despite a restricted budget, he once again displayed that spectacular flair that made his colleagues seem flat-footed. He even squared the circle in the controversy about legalising the sale of contraceptives (including condoms) by making them available to married couples on a prescription from a doctor. It was, he announced brazenly, an Irish solution to an Irish problem.

When Lynch retired late in 1979, Haughey seemed to be the best man to revive his party’s flagging fortunes and he was elected, albeit by a narrow majority that included few of his Cabinet colleagues. But, in his first term as Taoiseach, Haughey proved a disappointment. Although he began well by demanding more action from his ministers and promising a correction in public finances, he showed a lack of toughness that belied his public image in not cutting back expenditure and not sacking inefficient or dissident ministers.

He struck up an amiable relationship with Margaret Thatcher whom he presented with a Georgian silver teapot at their first meeting. He persuaded her to make the first official visit by a British prime minister to Dublin and won acceptance for the idea of joint action by the two governments on Northern Ireland rather than awaiting an internal settlement among the parties there.

He and some ministers hinted that the agreement to examine the totality of relationships between the two islands would enable the issue of partition to be reopened. For a period the British Government, although irked, seemed content to allow him to make political mileage out of these claims, influenced perhaps by the fact that the policing of the border was more efficient than under Jack Lynch. But Thatcher’s inflexibility in face of the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland soured relations. The electoral boost it gave to republican hunger-striker candidates in border constituencies precipitated Haughey’s narrow defeat in the 1981 general election.

He was, however, back in office after a further general election in February 1982. This term was even less successful than his first. He was dependent for his majority on a left-wing Independent and could not make the necessary cut-backs. His relationship with Thatcher collapsed when the Irish Government backtracked to adopt a neutral position in the EEC and at the United Nations at the time of the Falklands invasion.

In November 1982 he was forced from office after the death of one of his backbenchers and was defeated in the subsequent general election. On polling day his election agent was caught presenting himself to cast his vote in two different places. It was revealed by the incoming government that Haughey’s Justice Minister, who was one of his chief henchmen, had had the telephone lines of several critical journalists tapped to listen to conversations with disloyal members of his government. Haughey was pilloried by the media.

As it seemed inevitable that he would be replaced as leader of Fianna Fail, journalists vied with one another in writing his political obituary. However, Houdini-like, he held on where a less doughty fighter would have resigned, and rivalries among possible successors helped to ensure his survival. He was then able to rid the party of his most hostile opponents within it (including Desmond O’Malley, who left to form a new party).

In opposition between 1982 and 1987, Haughey marked time while his successor, Garret FitzGerald, who had promised to rectify the public finances, failed to have this done and lost credibility. Somewhat irresponsibly, Haughey castigated any feeble cutbacks as Thatcherite or monetarist.

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